Can't just leave Julie's response unrebutted ...
Your comment is what I hear every time I bring up the
deficiencies of
fed searching within earshot of a fed searching vendor. Yes,
in theory
it is possible to do all sorts of fun things with inbound
data on the
client side. I nearly blinded myself writing elegant regular
expressions
to get a federated search product to morph the incoming data
into shape
to do all sorts of things.
My point is that there's a gap between the "anything
is possible" theory
and library reality. Any large research library has scores,
if not
hundreds, of databases that they offer which do not lend
themselves to
convenient federated searching. Vendors tend to ignore these
(once
you've purchased the product, that is), so you're on your
own to write
parsing programs and extra features to get them to work.
It's hard and
tedious work, and unless you've got a bunch of bored
programmers--most
libraries don't--then lights out on that. If you can't
federate it,
things like filters for peer-reviewed articles don't really
mean a whole
lot.
It's not a question of the possible, it's about the
doable, and given
the iconoclastic nature of some database vendors, well,
it's more about
lobbying than any technical issue.
Dale
Julie Blume Nye wrote:
>> one of the core weaknesses of
>> federated searching, i.e.- it can't do a better
job than (or even as
>> good of a job as) any given database's native
interface. Unless the
>
> Not necessarily true -- if the targets don't support a
feature, the
> federated search software may be able to implement it
on the client side.
>
> For example, Fretwell Downing's ZPORTAL limits to
peer reviewed journals by
> comparing results received from each database against a
'master' list of
> peer-reviewed journals. (The comparison is on ISSN,
not journal title.)
> This allows the peer reviewed limit to applied to
results from many more
> databases since most databases include ISSNs in their
results, while
> relatively few support peer-reviewed limiting at
present.
> Either Openly.Informatics' UHF data or Bowker's
Ulrich's dataset can be used
> as the master list of peer-reviewed journals.
>
> This is also the approach ZPORTAL has taken for other
features that many
> targets don't support (or don't support in comparable
ways) -- e.g. date
> limiting.
>
> ---------------------------------------
> Julie Blume Nye
> Senior Product Designer -- Fretwell-Downing, Inc.
> 407 River Trace Dr.
> Rougemont, NC 27572
> Phone: 336-364-2607 Fax: 336-364-4224
> E-mail: mailto:julie.nye fdusa.com
> Website: www.fdusa.com
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DISCLAIMER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> The information transmitted in this electronic mail
message may contain
> confidential and or privileged materials. For full
details and restrictions
> see http://ww
w.fdgroup.com/emaildisclaimer.html
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Dale Askey [mailto:daskeyksu.edu]
>> Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 12:53 PM
>> To: web4libwebjunction.org
>> Subject: re: [Web4lib] Federated search products
and Full
>> Text/Peer Reviewlimiting
>>
>> Jonathan,
>>
>> I think your question gets at the heart of one of
the core
>> weaknesses of
>> federated searching, i.e.- it can't do a better
job than (or even as
>> good of a job as) any given database's native
interface. Unless the
>> native interface allows limiting to full text or
>> peer-reviewed articles,
>> there's at best dim hope that you could get the
former to work, and
>> practically none for the latter. Now I know a few
of you
>> highly-skilled
>> programmer types are just looking to prove me
wrong, and for a few
>> limited database targets you might succeed, but
let's be
>> realistic. With
>> a remotely-hosted service, you're never going to
have such
>> control over
>> the search behavior, and with locally-hosted,
you'd need some
>> very, very
>> talented folk (read: large budget or blind luck) to
get a fed search
>> engine to do this. It may have less to do with the
technical aspects,
>> frankly, and more to do with the potpourri of data
that the
>> targets return.
>>
>> Besides, if you have a good link resolver, why
limit to full text
>> results? Just slap a link resolver button on each
result, and that
>> problem is largely solved.
>>
>> Dale
>>
>>
>>
>> quoted message:
>>
>> Our library is considering adding a federated
search product,
>> and we've
>> got a question for those of you now using them.
>>
>> In your experience, have Federated Search programs
been able
>> to reliably
>> limit to Full Text and/or Peer Reviewed articles?
We're especially
>> interested in those programs that are hosted
remotely rather than
>> locally.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Dale Askey
>> Web Development Librarian
>> KSU Libraries
>> 118 Hale Library
>> Manhattan, KS 66506
>> (785) 532-7672
>>
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Web4libwebjunction.org
> http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/
>
--
Dale Askey
Web Development Librarian
KSU Libraries
118 Hale Library
Manhattan, KS 66506
(785) 532-7672
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